Monday, November 28

7 reasons Federal govt. can't shut down MMM in Nigeria

MMM one of the most popular acronym and biggest scams in the 90’s will never be forgotten by Nigerians in a hurry. The Ponzi scheme has taken Nigeria by storm with many putting huge sums into it despite clear warnings from the Central Bank of Nigeria, House of Representatives and a threat from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to desist from it, Naij reports.

According to Wikipedia, МММ was a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world’s largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s. By different estimates from 5 to 40 million people lost up to $10 billion.

The exact figures are not known even to the founders. It is also vital to note that 50 investors in MMM committed suicide in 1994 after it crashed.

The police closed the offices of MMM for tax evasion on July 22, 1994. The company tried to continue the scheme but the business shut down.

1. Nobody has raised valid allegation against it Another major reason is the fact that no one has complained yet of losing money or getting swindled by the scheme. Proponents of this theory believe this is probably why security agents are yet to swing into action. Typically, criminal cases (which this would have fallen into assuming it’s established as a ponzi) are typically investigated after a complaint has been laid by the accuser. If this holds true, then it will be a while before authorities even touch this scheme.

2. Top government officials are involved There are rumors that policemen, top government and EFCC officials have shares in the scheme which makes them less concerned about curbing its activities in the country.

3. There are no laws in place against it for now Legal analysts also opine that there is no clear law against MMM especially as no one has complained of losing money in the scheme. The Cyber Crime Act of 2015 also doesn’t specifically classify as illegal any website use to crowd source money from Nigerians. The Security and Exchange Commission may also not have jurisdiction here as contributors to the scheme are not investing. In fact, they claim on the website that it is “not an investment program”. Without an enabling law or at least one that is close to it, MMM appears to be on a legal sound footing and can only be thwarted legally if someone complains of being swindled.

4. Buhari may lose the support of Nigerians if he shuts down MMM.

5. It has the support of a lot of people.

6. At this period of economic recession, it is a source of income for many Nigerians

More and more Nigerians are increasingly looking for ways to improve their income providing MMM with a massive pool of potential contributors that could run into tens of millions of Nigerians.

7. MMM has no face

There is no registered office or bank account attributed to MMM, making it hard to be targeted by the federal government.